Netflix Says It Sees Little Change If Fox Acquires Time Warner

By David Lieberman on Jul 21, 2014 2:23 pm

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“Fox and Warner are both pretty powerful companies today. … I don’t know how it changes much if they come together,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told analysts today when asked about Rupert Murdoch’s bid for the entertainment giant. The effort probably has “more to do with cable negotiations with sports.” CEO Reed Hastings added that he would offer “no speculation” about what Netflix might do if Fox and Time Warner agreed to merge. “The more we work directly with producers, the less we have to worry with aggregation and big content suppliers.”

On other matters: Sarandos talked up Chelsea Handler’s upcoming late-night talk show, saying her focus on entertainment and pop culture will make it “a great representative of the kind of programming on Netflix.” A nightly show makes sense for a company known for binge viewing because viewers are “not watching late-night talk shows the way they used to. They’re watching days weeks and sometimes months later.” The show “is not instantly perishable content. It’s more perishable, but the economics level that out for us.”

Sarandos also says that Netflix will premiere the upcoming AMC series Better Call Saul outside of North America. He talked up the upcoming multinational series Marco Polo. “It’s a very ambitious project and it’s coming along beautifully for Q4,” he said. Sarandos also noted in passing that CBS’ The Menalist is the most popular show in France.

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